Match Group

When I began venturing out into the untamed wilderness of online dating, Plenty Of Fish was one of the first dating sites I came across. Off I went to explore, but almost as soon as I signed on to POF, I was ready to sign off.

I know I'm far from alone when I say that POF seemed like the wasteland of online dating. It felt like all I could find was men looking for instant hookups, many of whom were more than twice my age. POF was many things, but none of them was the dating experience I was looking for.

On May 20, 2013, POF Founder and CEO Markus Frind sent out an email that could change the face of the site forever. He is giving POF a makeover, one that he hopes will steer the site away from hookups and towards daters who are looking for real relationships.

Frind recently shared his vision for a new Plenty of Fish in an interview with Elizabeth Denham of the Huffington Post. "We wanted to generate more relationships among women, and men for that matter," he said, "and the best way to do that was eliminate this kind of behavior."

The list of proposed changes includes:

• Automatically deleting first contact between users that contains sexual references
• Banning contact between users with more than a 14-year age difference
• Eliminating the "Intimate Encounters" category of dating

Frind has also implemented a photo policy that applies solely to male users on the site. "We blocked the ability of men to send photos to women because men were misbehaving in some photos," he explains. Women, however, can still send photos to men.

One reason for the focus on hookups could be POF users' move to mobile. POF went from 20% mobile to 70% mobile in a year and a half, a change that Frind believes is strongly responsible for the increase in hookups on the site. "It just makes you use it differently," he says of mobile dating. "It generates a different kind of perception, a different kind of feel."

On a site that reigned supreme because of the hookup culture it supported, the changes Frind has made are bound to make a big impact. He claims he's already seen dramatic differences in the way users write their profiles, and says he received 150,000 emails within 12 hours of announcing the changes, the majority of which were overwhelmingly supportive.

For more information on this free dating site you can read our POF.com review.

Remember the three-day rule? Well, you can forget about waiting to make that call and a lot of other advice that might have worked in the dating scene ten years ago.

Now in the age of GPS-based apps like Tinder that can hook you up with someone instantly, and the way we communicate primarily via text rather than phone calls, this kind of advice falls short. Now that we have instant access (and therefore expect more immediate gratification), we don't have the time or patience to sit around and wait. After all, there could be five other hot men (or women) to meet in the meantime.

So how do you navigate the new digital dating world with so much access to new people - whether it's online dating, mobile dating, or meeting through Facebook? What are some guidelines to help figure out when to contact someone and how?

Following are some new tips to get you started:

Get familiar with technology. If you're new to the dating scene then it's important not to dismiss technology when it comes to helping you find someone. Online dating is extremely popular, with thousands of singles joining various websites every day. Mobile dating also offers a lot of different options - from apps that connect you to friends of friends on Facebook to those that tell you who is single and within a five-mile radius of where you happen to be in the moment. See what's out there. Don't assume that it's not for you until you try it.

Communicate. Instead of playing coy and waiting around for someone else to make a move, it's good to communicate with him so he knows you're interested. Dating moves very quickly, so if you drop in and out of communication with someone or wait a day or more to answer a text, you could miss out on opportunities. Be consistent - respond in a timely way to texts and emails, and check in with your online dating site often.

Be honest. If you are serious about finding a relationship, then it's important to be honest about who you are. It's easy to pretend to be someone else online and paste old photos on your dating profile or fudge your age or height. But when you start meeting people to date, you're going to have to explain yourself. Be true to who you are, that is the best way to connect to someone else.

Be bold. Good relationships don't just magically happen. They require risk - we have to put ourselves out there, to be willing to show who we are to someone else. If you go solo to that party, or talk to the stranger in front of you in the Starbucks line, or get up the nerve to message that guy you've been eyeing on your online dating site, you are making the effort. These are all small steps, but can lead to something great. Take more risks by putting yourself out there. Love is worth it.

Baby boomers may be getting older, but online dating is proving that it will never get old.

OurTime.com is the largest dating community for singles aged 50 plus, which also makes it home to one of the fastest-growing demographics in the market. Boomer dating is experiencing a colossal boom, and OurTime.com is right at the front lines of the action.

According to the 2012 US census, more than 1/3 of the 107 million singles in the country are over the age of 50. But despite their growing numbers and increasing influence, the senior set is a dating demographic that is still largely misunderstood. OurTime is out to change that, with a new set of mature dating statistics that prove tech-savvy singles come in every age.

The 50+ singles scene is made up of a diverse group of daters:

• The membership ratio for OurTime.com is 45% men to 55% women.
• 69% of OurTime members are single parents.
• Nearly 70% have already been married at least once. 54% are divorced, and 15% are widowed. Only 50% of users in their 50s say they're interested in getting married again, a percentage which decreases dramatically once they reach their 60s (8%) and their 70s (5%).

Seniors don't have a reputation for being the most technologically advanced age group, but online dating is proving that they know their way around a computer just as well as their younger counterparts.

• OurTime members log-on an average of 44 times and view 81 profiles during a 90-day period.
• 1 in 5 Our Time members users a mobile device to log-on. Their device of choice? The iPad, of course.
• OurTime.com's membership has jumped 66% over the last two years.
• Senior dating has been particularly popular in Kansas City, MO, Tuscon, AZ, San Diego, CA, Rochester, NY, and St. Louis, MO.

Here's what singles are looking for in their more mature years:

• "Nature and Outdoors" is the #1 interest listed on profiles by both male and female OurTime members.
• For men, sports ranks second and fitness comes in third.
• For women, family and friends takes the #2 spot and travel comes in at #3.
• Physical attraction is also an important factor: 87% of singles ages 50-70 say it's a must-have.

"This is a vibrant, growing community of singles that's taking the dating scene by storm," said Dr. Terri Orbuch, relationship expert for OurTime.com, "and rightfully so. By and large this age group is happier, more secure, and even feeling sexier than their younger counterparts. They also are a better judge of the type of person who will make them happy, so it's the perfect stage of life to be looking for love."

It is clearly OurTime's time to shine. For more information on this dating site you can read our review of OurTime.

The word on everybody's lips right now is: Tinder.

No, they're not trying to start campfires...they're talking about the new dating app that's been taking the world by storm.

Created by Hatch Labs - an LA-based startup backed by IAC, the same digital media giant that also owns Match and OKCupid - Tinder has exploded onto the scene since its launch in October. Here's why:

• It's free.
• It's casual.
• It's connected to Facebook.
• It doesn't focus on the traditional profile model.
• It's location-enabled.
• It's targeting the tech-savvy younger generations.

You may not have heard of it yet, but Tinder has already sparked 50 million matches and 4.5 billion user ratings. Not bad for an app that's barely more than six months old...

The Tinder team is determined to keep that momentum going. They're already hard at work to create tools to enhance the Tinder experience, like the brand new "Matchmaker" feature. The update allows users to make introductions between any of their Facebook friends, whether or not they're already on Tinder.

It's easy: Just select two friends, add a message, and press send. Once a user has matched two Facebook friends, they can chat within Tinder without sharing their contact information. If the friends aren't already using the app, Tinder sends them a message on Facebook and asks them to sign up for an account to see the post.

An additional feature of Matchmaker allows the person who made the introduction to see if the match is active. That way they can get a sense of their success rate, and gently encourage a match to communicate more if the conversation goes silent.

"Right now introductions are a very difficult process," says Sean Rad, Tinder's CEO. "They're slow, they're socially awkward. This is a socially acceptable environment for you to make introductions in an easy way."

Rad hopes that the introductions will go beyond dating. Need a connection for a new car, or the perfect employee for your startup? Rad's goal is to make Tinder's Matchmaker feature your go-to for relationships and networking of all kinds. So far, its success has been even more than he imagined.

Tinder launched a month-long test of Matchmaker with 100 users. Rad expected about 10% of the test population to make connections, while the other 90% benefited from the introductions made. Instead, nearly all of the beta users made multiple introductions.

Sounds like Tinder is about to have another success story on its hands.

Let's face it: when you think of finding love online, you don't think of POF.com. Though the site started out with good intentions, it's now known as a seedy den of no-strings-attached hookups and dubiously real profiles.

But that's all about to change. Markus Frind, CEO and Founder of PlentyOfFish.com, is taking radical action to revamp the site and restore its reputation.

"When I created POF," he said in an email to users, "I wanted it to be all about finding relationships with the right person. For the first 7 years this worked really well, I got the site to 10 million users without any employees and POF was generating a ton of relationships." Then the smartphone became the most popular technological gadget in the world, and online dating changed.

"Today about 70% of POF use is via a mobile phone," Frind explained, "and unfortunately about 2% of men started to use POF as more of a hookup site mostly due the casual nature of cell phone use." Displeased with the turn his site has taken, Frind is determined to give POF a makeover.

To bring the site back to his original vision, Frind is making three major changes:

1. Any first contact between users that is sexual in nature will not be sent. Users who try to skirt the new rule will automatically be deleted from the site's database with no warning. Frind says that this rule has already been in effect, and has noticeably improved the site.
2. Contact can only happen between users with an age difference of 14 years or under. "There is no reason for a 50 year old man to contact an 18 year old women," said Frind. "The majority of messages sent outside those age ranges are all about hookups." The same automatic deletion policy also applies to this new rule.
3. The "Intimate Encounters and Married" users of the site will no longer exist. Of the 3.3 million people who use POF daily, Frind notes, only 6,041 are single women looking for intimate encounters - and of those 6,041 women, most are men pretending to be women.

Frind promises that the vast majority of POF users will not be affected by the changes taking place. Those who are using the site as he intended - to find real, lasting relationships - will barely be impacted, other than by a welcome decrease in spammy, sex-seeking messages.

The old POF was the most popular free dating site in the country. Can the new POF live up to the success of its predecessor? Post your own Plenty of Fish review and let us know.

The world changed forever on the day Martha Stewart came out in favor of online dating.

I know, I know...it sounds like I'm exaggerating, but I'm really not. Just think about it: what did Martha Stewart stand for before she stood for online dating? Healthy recipes. DIY. Ideas for entertaining. Crafts. Gardening. Kmart. Home décor. Doilies. Assorted other 'good things.'

In other words, Stewart built a multi-million dollar empire on being the most boring, average woman on the planet (other than the insider trading thing, but let's not go there). When a woman like that says online dating is the way to go, no one is ever going to look at online dating the same way again.

It all started with an interview with Matt Lauer. Stewart told the "Today" host that she loves dating, but hasn't yet found "Mr. Right." Her first attempt to take her search online didn't end as planned - she made it halfway through setting up a Match.com profile before abandoning the pursuit in a fit of laughter.

Fortunately, Match.com came to the rescue and posted a profile for Stewart. She's looking for someone "active and fit and healthy and good looking," who doesn't hate children or animals, smoke, or drink to excess. She's also on the lookout for "a nice smile, a nice appetite for good things... a nice person who's also funny and witty and smart and hopefully rich enough."

It might sound like a long list of requirements, but the 20,000 pageviews the profile received in the first few days prove that quite a few men are willing to take on the challenge of dating Martha Stewart. She narrowed a pool of 1,000 suitors down to two men who joined her on "Today" for an interview (and you think your first dates are awkward!).

When Martha Stewart is happy to discuss her online dating exploits with the nation, it's clear that the stigma surrounding it is finally gone. Online dating is so much more than socially awkward loners in their parents' basements...it's an opportunity for everyone, regardless of age, to expand their horizons and open their love lives to partners they may never have met otherwise.

If Martha's into it, it must officially be normal, cool, and mainstream (except the doilies...that will never be cool).

In other words, stereotypes are out. Online dating is in. And now everyone knows it.

What do you think...is Martha Stewart's Match.com profile 'a good thing' for online dating?

For more information on the dating site Match.com you can read our review.